Supply Chain Management: The Success Of Mountain Dew Kickstart

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There are a few key strengths that allowed PepsiCo to pursue the opportunity of loyal customers and their changing tastes which led to the launch of Mountain Dew Kickstart. Mountain Dew’s reputational resources of the well-known brand name and reputation was key leverage for Kickstart. Mountain Dew Leadership team was fully aware that customer demands were changing and that new flavors would not suffice. Loyalist did not desire the bitter taste acquired from consuming coffee, but preferred a sugary delight instead to jump start the day (Hall, 2015).

Consumer research allowed leadership to note that Mountain Dew fans needed an alternative to traditional coffee and energy drinks (Associated Press, 2013). Through research and informational
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The success of Mountain Dew Kickstart becoming one of the “Breakthrough Innovations” stems from superior management talent being mindful of the trends and situations in the external environment in order to recognizing the potential of external opportunities (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). In addition to the team’s vision, the Mountain Dew leadership team was able to organize a vast amount of data and information to drive out and deliver a winning product (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). Pepsico also had a good working relationship with its supply chain partner for bottling the product and who further supported product launch. Pepsico had the financial resources that enabled the team to triple the initial media funding plan. Ultimately, this product innovation was a combination of financial, intellectual, legal, human, organizational, informational, relational, and reputational resources which afforded Pepsico strength in maintaining consumers and generating new …show more content…
Although Pepsico executed operational excellence, product leadership and customer intimacy competitive advantage strategies, the main focus where the firm excelled was through the competitive advantage strategic which employed in the development of the breakthrough innovation Mountain Dew Kickstart. The Kickstart initiative specifically targeted millennial males across cultures. Pepsico knew through customer research that millennial consumer guys needed a product to give them a boost. Leadership was also cognizant of the trend of mixing Mountain Dew and Orange juice. Also, Pepsico was able to better understand their customer needs than competition such as Red Bull where customers may not want to consume an energy drink before noon (Bouckley, 2015). Since Pepsico was able to recognize that its core competencies gave it an advantage over its competition, Mountain Dew Kickstart is one of Pepsico’s most successful start-up launches in the past decade (Hall,

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